About Eddy

Hi, welcome to my blog!

Everything comes from Eddy’s Kitchen!

Proudly displaying an antipasto salad - December 2008

My name is Eddy and I have been cooking since the age of 16. I was born in Macau and grew up in Hong Kong cooking traditional Chinese dishes, but I have since expanded and also enjoy cooking a wide variety of Western cuisine (Italian, French, Pacific Northwest, etc). I immigrated to Canada in 1969 and have been living here happily ever since.

Back in Hong Kong, I began at Mobile Cooking School(無比烹飪學校) in Hong Kong with Miss Tam Kwok Mui (譚國梅).  I am posting all the original recipes from Mobile Cooking School(無比烹飪學校) written by Miss Tam Kwok Mui (譚國梅).  These are some of the most original and the oldest Chinese cooking recipes from 50 years ago.  It is really my honor and privilege to spend a year learning my basic Chinese  skill from Miss Tam.  It forms the foundation of my cooking knowledge.  Unfortunately all the original recipes are in Chinese and I have no translation yet.  It’ll be a project for me in the future.  However I’ve scanned all the original recipes as PDF file so you can download it and try it out!

Mobile Cooking School Chinese Recipes

譚國梅, Ms. Tam in her TV cooking show in 1970

Since moving to Canada, I have also taken cooking courses at Dubrulle (now known as the Art Institute) with Soren Fakstorp, Michael Noble, Rob Feenie, and more. I shop every day and I cook every day, which is the best practice of all. Cooking is one of my favourite hobbies and I sometimes come up with new dishes even in my sleep! I am looking forward to sharing all of my favourite dishes so you can prepare them in your own home as well.

All of the recipe photos on my blog are original and taken by me or my daughter, Vanessa, after we are done cooking. She helps me with my photos and my blog and I teach her all of my time-tested recipes.

Our Family in San Francisco

I am not a professional chef and I don’t want to be one; however, cooking is a passion for me and I love to eat! Cooking is one of my favourite hobbies and I’m glad to share my recipes with you on this blog. I would also like to incorporate many of my little tricks and strategies that are usually not taught in a recipe book.

Favourite dish (Western): Linguine with a light tomato sauce

Favourite dish (Eastern): Steamed minced pork cake with mushrooms (jing jiu-yook)

Favourite ingredient: Seafood

Portrait taken by my daughter Vanessa

Cooking at home will give you the best quality of food — in terms of health, freshness, and best of all, cost-savings. Even when you are eating in a first-class restaurant, you often have no idea what you get on your plate. Every month, I read the restaurant and food outlet closure reports. You will see a long list of disgusting reasons: pest infestations, rodent droppings, unsanitary workers, and the list goes on. When you cook at home, you know exactly what you are putting into your food. At least if you find a hair in your food, it will only be your own!

To me, value vs. cost is a very important formula. I don’t mind when things are expensive, as long as I receive the proper value — for example, AAA beef is double the cost of AA beef, but I will pay for the AAA because it is well worth the price. When you are shopping, keep this in mind. There are some things worth paying for and it is important to eat fresh and healthy ingredients. For me, I like to shop locally and shop every day. My favourite places to shop in Vancouver are in Chinatown, where you can chat directly with the shop owners and have a large selection of different types of ingredients. For certain ingredients, I go to specific places: Santa Barbara Market on Commercial Drive for cheap cold cuts and various Italian ingredients, Bosa Foods and Cioffi’s Meat Market for consistent selection and fresh things like bocconcini, and Red Apple Market for convenience and great fresh selection.

It is very important to know the market value of things you commonly buy. For me, I often don’t know what to cook until I visit the market at 4:00pm. Whatever is on special, is fresh, and is appetizing is what usually ends up on my plate a few hours later. My day-to-day cooking is not complicated and not expensive. Know what you are buying and eating!

Fishing in Ucluelet, BC - Vancouver Island

I catch my own salmon every year off the West Coast of Vancouver Island with my fishing charter captain Nick Yanchuk.   There is nothing better catching your own fish in the morning and having it for dinner the same evening. You can visit his site here: http://www.morningmagic.com/

Catching a Pacific Spring Salmon - Queen Charlotte Islands, BC

Cooking in a professional kitchen at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts